VAGABOND program: looking for 15 PhD students (multiple locations)

Pre-clinical drug development for paediatric cancer is very complex, resource intensive and requiring multi-disciplinary expertise and innovative approaches. “VAGABOND Validation of Actionable Genomic ABerrations in a paediatric Oncology Network for Doctorate students” aims to create a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral program to validate new therapeutic interventions in paediatric cancer.

The program is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network) and offers 15 fully funded PhD positions. The successful candidates will be hosted by a member of a European Consortium of universities, research institutions and companies in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France.

This network is coordinated by the Princess Máxima Center and will be sustainable embedded in the ITCC (Innovative Treatments for Children with Cancer) Consortium. The VAGABOND ITN will focus on 15 cutting-edge research projects studying molecular, epigenetic and immunological targets. All projects will (partly) include target identification, in vitro and in vivo validation, compound testing and preparation for clinical implementation.

This consortium will highly stimulate international education and multi-disciplinary exchange of expertise in the different steps of pre-clinical drug development. This setting provides an opportunity for a unique European training network in which PhD students are equipped with a broad knowledge in pre-clinical drug development. Through this network PhD students will gain access to other leading academic research groups, specialized multi-sectoral companies and the most innovative techniques and insights in the complexity of translational medicine to prepare them for future challenges in their career pathway. In this collaboration we will increase the commune expertise on tumour types and technical expertise for target validation. This will improve the implementation of interventions across paediatric cancer and strongly reduce the timeline from bench to the bedside.

We offer

• The opportunity to work with scientist from leading European industrial partners and academic institutes in the area of paediatric oncology
• International networking opportunities
• 2 intersectional (academic and non-academic) secondments of 3 months each
• 4 summerschools and 3 specialized interim courses offering scientific and transferable skills
• Personal development program BeyondU for a personal transformational experience towards resilient and confident leaders of the future
• The world-wide most important industry recognized Project Management Professional (PMP) certification given by the Project Management Institute (PMI)
• High quality doctoral training rewarded by a PhD degree from a major European university
• A competitive salary, travel allowance and family allowance (if applicable)
• Appointment for a period of minimum 36 months
• A journey in which you get all opportunities to reach your full potential and accelerate your career in paediatric oncology!

Your qualifications

• A Master’s degree (MSc) in biomedical sciences, medicine, pharmacy, bioinformatics, biotechnology or equivalent
• Excellent English language and communication skills
• Willingness to relocate and reside abroad for at least 3 years including travel for secondments, training and project meetings
• They must fulfil the mobility rule, i.e. have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies) in the country of the host organization for no more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date. The earliest possible recruitment date is March 1^st 2021
• They must also fulfil the Early Stage Researcher (ESR) rule, i.e. be within their first four years of their research careers at the date of recruitment by the host organization and have not been awarded a doctorate degree
• Applicants should be available during the central recruitment days on January 28^th - 29^th 2021
• Applicants should be available to start the PhD position before October 1^st 2021

Interested? Visit www.vagabondnetwork.com/career for more information on the individual PhD positions and application details.